Bay High students add color to Play in Bay

by Eileen Vernon

Bay High School art students created unique signs for the Play in Bay playground. Photo by Tom Schemrich

Several community members recently saw some examples of signage and graphics that made playgrounds more colorful and pleasing to the eye, and they brought these ideas to the attention of the Bay Village Foundation trustees, who are leading community efforts to refurbish Play in Bay. The Bay Village Foundation president, Al Paulus, contacted Bay High School and was put in touch with Applied Arts teacher, Tom Schemrich.

The Foundation trustees were excited by the prospect of Bay High students, many of whom played at Play in Bay when they were young, creating colorful signage for the renovation project. The Applied Arts students accepted the assignment, came up with the idea of putting colorful fish as signs naming a number of spots in the playground (e.g., Perch Porch, Walleye Walk, etc.) and immediately set to work creating the fish. Al Paulus, along with a few other Foundation trustees and students met with the Cahoon Park Trustees and with their approval added the signs to the playground. Students that worked on the project included: Lucy Aleksandrovic, Savannah Bingaman, Maddie Dieterich, Lauren Galloway, Kaylie Harden, Claire Mohney, Sarah O'Hare and Tallulah Swazey.

“The goal of the class of Applied Arts is to create beautiful objects which serve a function or have a purpose other than the obvious ones," said Mr. Schemrich. "A chair can be a log to sit upon or it can be a lazy boy, but in either case it needs to accomplish the goal (of a seat) while intentionally making the objects more interesting, beautiful, successful, and turn an ordinary object to one that is memorable and makes an impact on the viewer.”

Regarding the project, Al Paulus said, "The students in Mr. Shemrich's class have made a wonderful addition to the playground, including the fish signs and a colorful chalk board. I hope the people that visit Play in Bay enjoy this artwork and see it as a terrific example of the many talents of our students."

Paulus further commented about the fundraising efforts, saying, "We have reached 92 percent of our goal for this project to refurbish Play in Bay. We are optimistic that we can raise a few thousand dollars more over the next two months. I hope more folks will come forward with a contribution to help us close out the project. Our goal is to have the additional features, composite decking, new chains and other improvements installed this fall."

As part of the project, the Foundation plans to install a "donor wall" to recognize those individuals and organizations who have contributed to the refurbishment effort. Contributions can be mailed to the Bay Village Foundation, P.O. Box 40122, Bay Village, OH 44140.

Eileen Vernon

Trustee of The Bay Village Foundation. Retired lawyer. Resident of Bay Village for over 32 years.